NEWS

Good morning! I hope that you had a nice weekend. In a little over a week, we will be celebrating Valentine’s Day. This holiday, focused on expressing our love and affection for others, can also serve as a reminder to love and be kind to ourselves. While you may be busy considering how to celebrate the upcoming holiday, use some of this love and kindness awareness for yourself too!

This week, while you’re thinking about gifts and meaningful gestures for others, I’d like you to consider a few ways in which you could be kind to yourself. Of course, a massage or nice vacation could help, but there are many simple ways to set yourself up for a peaceful day. A good way to begin this exercise is to recognize a few areas in your life that may evoke stress, frustration, or anxiety. Do you find that you are always running late? Does remembering which medications you are supposed to take make you anxious? Do you seem to forget to ask the nurse something during an appointment? These may seem like small concerns to not worry about, but they can build up.

Instead of treating yourself to a few sweet treats this Valentine’s Day, how about creating an environment that is designed for you to succeed? Peace and relaxation are wonderful ways to be kind to yourself. Instead of feeling anxious about running late, give yourself an extra 10-15 minutes to get ready. If you find yourself concerned about medications, print out a blank calendar month, fill in the dates, and bring it to your next appointment. We can help you fill out tentative dates for your medications with a pencil so that they can be changed if needed, but clearly written out for you. If you find yourself forgetting questions that you had, create a small fertility notebook that you keep in your purse. Jot down any questions or concerns that come to you throughout the day, and we would be happy to address them with you. How else can you minimize stress?

While some of these tasks do take a few extra steps in the beginning, they will minimize your stress level in an area that has been bothering you. I would recommend just choosing 1 or 2 areas to focus on, until they have been cleanly woven into your life as a habit. Then, if you find them helpful, you can add more as needed. This isn’t a project that is supposed to add more stress, it is all about taking it slow and being kind to yourself.

We have many more ways for you to be kind to yourself this week, with great yoga sessions and workshops. Be sure to check our CNY Fertility and CNY Healing Arts calendars.

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If you are interested in a more private one-on-one support situation, Lisa Stack is our CNY Fertility Center Support Coordiator, she offers her services as a lay support person and can be contacted by email at lstack@cnyfertility.com.

If you are interested in an initial fertility consultation either over the phone (if you live out of the NY State region) or in-office, please call our toll-free number at 800.539.9870 or request a consult here.